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I started looking into my GASSON research this evening, the earliest ancestors I have on my family tree for this line are Henry and Catherine GASSON, my 4x great grandparents.

I do know who Henry’s parents are (from someone else’s research) and I have a copy of his father’s will, but it is such a complicated situation (three wives) that I haven’t got around to putting the details in my tree and checking all the facts, but I am sure you will hear more of them in the future.

What interests me about Henry and Catherine is that they are the generation that moved over the border from Surrey into Sussex. From the details of their children’s births it seems to have been around 1830. At least four of their children (possibly more) were born in Surrey and then another five were born in Nuthurst, Sussex. The youngest child, Edward, is just one day old on the 1841 census and hadn’t been named.

Of all the children the only one I really know anything about is my 3x great grandfather Thomas. He was one of the Sussex children. The others are a bit of a mystery to me, so this is my first task for this family, find out some more about them.

The Surrey Marriage Index CD from the West Surrey Family History Society has Henry GAYSON marrying Catherine HOLMAN in Burstow, Surrey on the 16th March 1814. The 1851 gives Henry’s birth place as Charlwood, Surrey and Catherine’s as Burstow, Surrey. From some quick census searches on ancestry.co.uk and on the IGI it looks like Horley, Surrey is going to be a good place to start looking, several individuals which look like good matches have turned up from there.

It all seems more than a little confusing at the moment. I think I need to get this generation sorted out and clear in my mind before I try and go back any further. So back to some basic genealogy I think. Starting with extracting everything I possibly can from the 1841 and 1851 census returns for Henry and Catherine.